Chương 476: (469) 7.7. What’s the Greek Word for ‘A Lot’?

New elite monster discovered! 500 exp gained. Vin barely even noticed the notification, far too busy lunging to the side to dodge one of the dense tentacles crashing down with enough force to shake the ground and leave a series of cracks right where he'd been standing. Rather than land on his feet, however, something smacked into his legs, and Vin's eyes widened as he realized a smaller tentacle had swung low across the ground, tripping him up.

He twisted to ensure he fell on his stomach and didn't land on Lumel, grunting as he hit the ground hard. He glanced up, his eyes widening as he spotted another tentacle coming down right for them. A purple bubble spun into existence around them, and suddenly, Vin was watching his friends fight for their lives from fifty feet away. He blinked as he realized Lumel had moved them with a quick cast of Mass Dimensional Shift, and he quickly scrambled to his feet.

"Nice save!" he said, helping her up and giving her a quick kiss before analyzing the monster that had attacked them. This far away, out from within the mass of tentacles, it was obvious that they were being attacked by some sort of giant earth-octopus that had never learned how to count. Vin spotted at least eighteen separate tentacles ranging in size and thickness, each of them having burst out of the mounds of dirt he'd thought were anthills.

Shia was leaping around on Blossom, trusting the construct to keep her safe as she did her best to conjure jagged branches from the wooden cat to pierce into tentacles that got too close. Fragments such as this one with next to no vegetation for her to work with were a Druid's greatest weakness, but she was making do as best she could. Scule was clinging to her braid, holding on with one hand to keep himself from getting bucked off while firing poisoned darts at the tentacles.

His attacks weren't having much more of an effect than Shia's, as the tentacles appeared to be covered in a thick layer of hardened earth, which made penetrating them difficult. Unsurprisingly, Alka was doing far better than the other two. The Slayer was twisting and turning around the tentacles like a graceful dancer, her sword flashing in the bright light and humming as it cleaved through flesh and stone alike.

Her darthsteel-mithral blade didn't have the slightest issue severing the dense tentacles, and a powerful roar came from somewhere underground, shaking the surface of the fragment as the monster cried out in pain.

"I'm going to help the others, be ready to pull someone out if they're in danger," Vin said, getting a nod from Lumel as she kept her eyes peeled for anything. Even if she didn't have any combat spells to her name, nobody did utility and butt-saving better than a dedicated Dimensional Mage." Stone Shard!" Vin shouted as he ran forward, launching an empowered chunk of jagged stone at the closest tentacle.

The stone smashed into a tentacle with enough force to pierce through the earthen layer and draw blood, but the tentacle continued flapping about unabated, and Vin realized he was going to have to get up close and personal. I am really going to have to ask Alka to teach me how to use one of these someday… Casting Dimensional Sheath, Vin pulled out the pulsing, blood-red sword he'd obtained from the ranker king's corpse. The weapon wasn't a magical sword, it was a sword made entirely from magic.

It weighed nothing and felt like he was swinging air, but he knew from experience it was incredibly sharp and cut through magic just as well as Alka's old sword Dancing Leaf used to. Running up to the edge of the fight, Vin slashed forward, pleased to see how his sword cleaved straight through the thick tentacle with almost no resistance.

He knew from watching the ranker king struggle to cut fully through Alka's darthsteel form that it wasn't as though the magic blade was as sharp as adamantine or petrified elderwood, but it was plenty sharp for his purposes. He managed to slice through two more tentacles before the monster wizened up and shifted who it was going after. Half of the tentacles went for Alka, and half of them went for him.

Shia and Scule suddenly found themselves entirely forgotten, and Scule planted his hands on his hips as Blossom stopped leaping around.

"Hey, now that's just hurtful!"

"Maybe if you contributed more it would keep trying to kill you!" Alka offered, spinning a hundred and eighty degrees at the waist as she cleaved through a tentacle coming at her from behind before leaping out of the way of another. Watching her utilize her golem's ball-like joints and inhuman flexibility was always strange, and Vin had to look away when she twisted an arm around backwards in a way that would have obliterated a normal person's elbow.

"Shia, can you get through the ground?" Vin called out, noting how even if they chopped through the tops of a tentacle, more of it would emerge from the ground to continue trying to crush them. He didn't know how much more of the monster was hiding underground, but he'd rather not be here all day.

"Easily!" she said, grinning as she reached into her seed pouch and plucked one out. Holding it between her hands for a moment, she whispered to the seed, before tossing it straight into one of the larger cracks. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Beyond the Veil allowed him to see the runic formation for Rapid Growth spin together within Shia's mana pool as he stared at her core, and the sounds of groaning, cracking wood joined the fray as the seed began growing quite rapidly. Within seconds, a small sapling had sprouted out of the ground, and that sapling only grew larger and larger as Shia continued dumping mana into the spell.

It wasn't long before the tree was large enough to hang a swing from, and then so large Vin wasn't sure if he could even chop it down if he had an axe made of darthsteel. As it continued to grow, the ground cracked and tore up, the tree's roots extending deep into the earth. After a few seconds of this, the chunks of ground exploded outward as the monster threw them off of itself, and Vin stared with wide eyes into the hole that had formed where they'd been fighting.

Just as he'd guessed, the monster resembled some sort of massive, multi-tentacled creature. Though rather than having a small beak like an octopus, it had a large, gaping maw filled with teeth like a shark that was currently doing its best to gnaw apart chunks of root it was tearing off and bringing into its mouth. Situated in the center of the hole and dragging the earth down into its maw, the monster resembled some sort of humungous, mutated antlion.

"Now that's just gross," Scule said, peering down from Shia's shoulder. The monster was now devoted quite fully to fighting back against the tree that was still trying to invade its home as Shia continued pumping mana into it, meaning Vin and Alka were able to stop fighting for their lives as well.

"…Anyone want to jump down there and kill it from the inside out? Alka, looking at you."

"I've got a better idea," Vin said, stopping Alka before she could throw herself into the gaping maw of the monster. Holding up a finger, he cast his newest combat spell, causing a large ball of fire and stone to begin forming twenty feet above his head. It took a few seconds for the projectile to fully form, but once it was ready, he cleared his throat." Meteor," he said calmly, dropping his finger to point into the hole and directing his spell.

The flaming ball of dense stone nearly half as tall as he was blasted forward, descending from the sky like its namesake as it blazed into the hole. The ground shook and earth was thrown everywhere as the spell impacted the ground with enough force to make the carter Shia had created even larger. When the dust finally settled, Vin could only grin as he peered down at the bloody remains of the monster that had ambushed them.

"By the Gods, that spell is even crazier to see up close," Scule said, whistling as he peered into the smoking wreckage.

"I mean, I've seen far more terrifying spells watching the divine classes defend the citadel from the walls, but those were all backed by divine might. Something about seeing you just creating and hurling a giant, flaming rock at your enemies with your own magic really makes a statement."

"If that statement is 'die', then I agree," Shia chuckled, lovingly patting what remained of her tree. Vin's Meteor had largely destroyed that as well, and he winced as he watched her finish it off with a quick Decay.

"Sorry, Shia, I didn't mean to hurt the tree."

"Don't worry, this one wasn't meant to last either way," she said.

"In this environment, without any water? I was planning to Decay it after the fight anyway."

"That was a surprisingly tough elite monster," Alka admitted, kicking at the limp remains of one of the tentacles that had been blown clean off the main body.

"Might not be a bad idea to bring some of the Newer Guard out here to practice against them. They could use a bit more hands-on experience against the unusual ones."

"Only you would finish fighting a tough foe and immediately think to bring your students out to do the same," Vin chuckled, smiling as Lumel appeared next to him with a flash of purple.

"Did you enjoy the fight?"

"It's always interesting getting the chance to watch you all fight," Lumel admitted.

"I was ready with Dimensional Lockdown, but I'm glad I didn't need it. I probably couldn't keep something this large locked down for more than a split second."

"Hey, a split second can be the difference between life and death in a fight," Shia said, smiling at her.

"Don't think we've forgotten about the ranker king." Lumel had stopped the ranker king's initial surprise attack when they'd all met him in the desert to take him down, freezing him just long enough for Vin and Shia to dodge having their heads cut clean off. Lumel clearly remembered as well, as she blushed and returned Shia's smile.

"I'm just glad I can help."

"I feel like you guys are missing something sort of important here," Scule said, pointing down into the hole.

"If these things are all over this fragment, how in the world are the trogums supposed to survive in here?"

"The monsters clearly aren't moving around after they manifest," Shia pointed out.

"So long as the trogums stay clear of areas dense with those piles of dirt, they should be fine. Not to mention you can always just run away. If there's one thing the elite trogums have going for them it's their speed."

"Speaking of, maybe we should keep moving?" Vin offered, glancing up at the sky. The giant sun was hanging directly overhead now, and even with his spell active on all his friends, he didn't want to risk Lumel drying out any more than necessary. Not to mention he had a slight hang-up regarding larger-than-life suns after their harrowing experience in the death fragment filled with radiation.

This sun wasn't anywhere near as large as that one, which had taken up almost a third of the entire sky, but better safe than sorry.

"That's probably for the best," Shia agreed, getting back onto Blossom and petting her on the head as she got settled.

"Do we just keep heading for the center and hope for the best?"

"The Whisperer gave me a rough location, we should be able to find them without too much of a struggle," Vin said, helping Lumel up onto his back once more and smiling as she kissed him on the cheek in thanks.

"Worst-case scenario, I can start casting Sense Air directed at the ground to hunt for their tunnels. That probably won't result in me killing myself if I'm careful."

"No need to take any drastic risks!" Scule added hurriedly from atop Alka's shoulder.

"Reginald and I have a bet going on how you end up killing yourself next, and I don't want you to ruin it just yet!"